Joe Kaufman is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and the Chairman of the Joe Kaufman Security Initiative. He was the 2014, 2016 and 2018 Republican Nominee for U.S. House of Representatives (Florida-CD23).
On September 6th, six Palestinian prisoners being held in an Israeli jail escaped, forcing Israeli authorities to launch a manhunt for them. All have been caught, since. Of the six, five are members of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and one is a commander in the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, two groups internationally-recognized as terrorist organizations. Democratic operative and Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib staffer Rasha Mubarak thinks otherwise; she has lionized the terrorists as heroes. It is not the first time Mubarak has championed Palestinian terror, and the Democratic Party continues to embrace her and even groom her for future political office.
In August 2014, at the end of the 2014 Gaza War, along with photos of a jubilant Hamas, who had bizarrely just declared victory over Israel, Mubarak tweeted, “Thousands of people celebrating in the streets of Gaza for the victory. Alhamdulillah. #VictoryForGaza.” The war had left nearly 2200 Palestinians and 70 Israelis dead.
Mubarak has promoted material from Hamas-supporting media, including the Palestine Info Center and Shehab News, both of which are directly affiliated with Hamas and publicize the group along with shocking anti-Semitic cartoons of evil looking Orthodox Jews. In July 2014, Mubarak copied onto Facebook a post from Falastin News Palestine, a site that glorifies Hamas and PIJ fighters as heroes; outright states, “God bless Hamas”; features numerous photos of armed masked terrorists interacting with little children; and showcases photos of dead US and British Jews murdered in a Jerusalem synagogue, grossly referring to the dead as “occupiers.”
In June and July 2020, Mubarak posted memorials onto her Twitter and Facebook pages for car-ramming terrorist Ahmed Erekat, who was shot and killed after attempting to run over a female Israeli border officer, at a checkpoint east of Jerusalem.
This past March, Mubarak tweeted a video honoring deceased Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) spokesman Ghassan Khanafani as a “martyr.” Khanafani was responsible for the May 1972 Israel Lod Airport massacre, which left 26 innocents dead, including 17 Christian pilgrims from Puerto Rico. On the video, Khanafani is adamant about the fact that his group refuses to engage in any peace talks with Israelis, even if lives would be saved as a result, saying it would amount to “capitulation.”
As well in March, Mubarak complained about Israel’s re-arrest of PFLP terrorist Majd Barbar, who had just been released from prison after spending 20 years behind bars. Of it, she wrote, “Israel hates to see that no matter what: Palestinians will be resistant, find joy & channel our pain.” One day earlier, Mubarak had tweeted a festive video of Barbar being welcomed by his family. In 2001, Barbar had been convicted of forming a terrorist cell in Jerusalem, the reason behind him serving his 20 year sentence.
In June, when Israeli border guards shot dead a Palestinian woman approaching them with a knife at a West Bank checkpoint, after she ignored orders to stop, Mubarak absurdly and baselessly described the event as “Israel’s deliberate attempts at Palestinian erasure.” The woman, Ibtissam Kaabneh, had previously served 18 months in an Israeli prison, after being arrested in 2016, also for an attempted stabbing.
This past November, Mubarak tweeted a graphic of then-jailed Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader Maher al-Akhras with the caption, “FREE THEM ALL.” PIJ has been responsible for the murders of over 100 innocent people, many via suicide bombings.
On September 11th, a date most hold in contempt for terrorists, Mubarak once again shilled for operatives from PIJ. She wrote of the Palestinian terrorist prisoner escapees, “The Palestinian diaspora is grieving today as a total of 4 of the 6 Palestinian political prisoners from #thegreatescape were detained. Nonetheless, the hope these 6 Palestinian freedom fighters have offered us, will not be short lived – we will resist to exist.”
The previous day, Mubarak made mention of two of the six escapees being arrested, while mourning and lying about the death of another terrorist, Hazim al-Joulani, a medical college director who was caught on video attempting to stab an Israeli police officer. She tweeted, “The brutality of Israels state sanctioned violence continues to reverberate: 2/6 Palestinians political prisoners have been captured. Earlier Dr. Hazem alJoulani was murdered by IDF on his way to pray. God have mercy on all their souls…”
For most of the civilized world, terrorists are considered cold-hearted brutal butchers. For Mubarak, terrorists are “political prisoners” and “freedom fighters,” offering “hope” and involved in a “great escape.” She says “we will resist to exist,” because she pathologically believes that, for her and the murderous thugs she cheers on, there cannot be existence without terror.
None of this has phased certain elements within the Democratic Party, of which Mubarak has been a part of for a number of years. As of this writing, Mubarak’s likeness is found on the homepage of the official website of the Florida Young Democrats (FYD), a group that she has represented as a National Committeewoman.
Furthermore, Mubarak is a consultant and Finance Director for anti-Semitic and anti-Israel US Representative Rashida Tlaib. Mubarak’s consulting firm, Unbought Power, has received over $120,000 from Tlaib’s campaign and PAC. This past December, Tlaib assured Mubarak that she too would run for office (and continue her radical activities, in the process). Tlaib stated, “But Rasha, even like us, right now, even if you became elected – and one day you’ll run – even if you do, do you stop what you’re doing? No.”
Rasha Mubarak is a documented supporter of Palestinian terror. Indeed, the Democratic Party has become a home for people like Mubarak and as well Tlaib, who holds the same toxic views as her staffer. The abject failure of the party to repudiate either of them shows how ideologically, ethically and morally bankrupt its members have become.
Beila Rabinowitz, Director of Militant Islam Monitor, contributed to this report.
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